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Video zoom missing???

post #1 of 8
10/1/11 at 8:21am
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I bought my wife an iPod Touch G4 in June and started using the video camera recently. Am I correct that there is NO zoom available on the video camera???
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post #2 of 8
10/1/11 at 8:30am
No, of course not.
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post #3 of 8
10/1/11 at 9:24am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

No, of course not.

I guess Steve's thinking was to omit a common sense feature, then direct us to spend more money at the App Store .

I looked at the App Store and there are tons of choices, and naturally, Apple doesn't allow to Sort by Rating. Anyone have suggestions for an inexpensive, decent photo app that allows zooming the video camera on an iPod Touch 4G
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post #4 of 8
10/1/11 at 10:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aflaaak View Post

I guess Steve's thinking was to omit a common sense feature, then direct us to spend more money at the App Store .

Those are digital zoom applications, and they're terrible (not the applications, necessarily, the inherent terribleness of digital zoom). They're not worth any amount of money.

Take a look at your iPod touch. See how mind-numbingly thin it is? You can't FIT a moving lens in there. The technology just doesn't exist yet outside of Above Top Secret military installations.

The feature may be common sense, but it's not designed to be a professional camcorder or camera. It's nowhere near their top priorities for the device.
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post #5 of 8
10/1/11 at 10:42am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

Those are digital zoom applications, and they're terrible (not the applications, necessarily, the inherent terribleness of digital zoom). They're not worth any amount of money.

Take a look at your iPod touch. See how mind-numbingly thin it is? You can't FIT a moving lens in there. The technology just doesn't exist yet outside of Above Top Secret military installations.

The feature may be common sense, but it's not designed to be a professional camcorder or camera. It's nowhere near their top priorities for the device.

Your answer is a complete waste of typing. I'm not a complete doof...I understand that the lens is fixed, and therefore digital zoom is all that is possible. I also understand that the resolution is pretty decent, so zooming by cropping might be acceptable. The fixed camera has the capability, why not the video cam? Either way, I have a digital camera with video capability and a mini DV camcorder for better video, IF I happen to have them with me, and am willing to "live" with the limitations for the convenience.
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post #6 of 8
10/1/11 at 11:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aflaaak View Post

I guess Steve's thinking was to omit a common sense feature, then direct us to spend more money at the App Store .

There are external lens mounts for the iPhone because it's the only way to get a zoom feature without cropping the image:

http://www.amazon.com/Camera-Tripod-...7490382&sr=1-2

5-Megapixel isn't that high for cropping but it can work.

The iPod Touch however, only has a 700KPixel output. That's not good quality in a photo even without cropping so there would be no market for external lens mounts and no options for cropping in software.

Your only real option is to move closer to whatever you're filming.
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post #7 of 8
10/2/11 at 6:04am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

There are external lens mounts for the iPhone because it's the only way to get a zoom feature without cropping the image:

http://www.amazon.com/Camera-Tripod-...7490382&sr=1-2

5-Megapixel isn't that high for cropping but it can work.

The iPod Touch however, only has a 700KPixel output. That's not good quality in a photo even without cropping so there would be no market for external lens mounts and no options for cropping in software.

Your only real option is to move closer to whatever you're filming.

Not trying to use the Touch's still camera as I understand it's poor, but thought the video it takes isn't bad.
Case in point...we were at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, and Chris Isaak was on stage. My wife and I were 100 yards away. Didn't need to zoom in to read see the exact pattern on his jacket, just far enough to fill the screen with the stage. Having a totally fixed length for video is just waay inflexible. I know they have those cool mag-attach lenses for the iPhone, but it's still fixed focal length.

I know there are a ton of "zoom" apps out there and wondered if anyone had good luck one. The App Store doesn't, unfortunately, allow to sort by rating, so combing through them is a bit tedious.
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post #8 of 8
10/2/11 at 11:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aflaaak View Post

Having a totally fixed length for video is just waay inflexible. I know they have those cool mag-attach lenses for the iPhone, but it's still fixed focal length.

Yeah, you would get some quality loss and blurriness - for small zooms, it might be acceptable. There's a video here of it with and without the lens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIkHKqsyaZE

Having some small optical zoom would be handy, even if the lens protruded a bit in the way this Samsung model does but obviously much smaller:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/S...h-Optical-Zoom

It's probably not something Apple would be interested in though because it means having a moving mechanism that can fail and would also use up more space.

The good thing about shooting 720p is you can crop in post-production if you are authoring to DVD or the web. You should manage better quality than this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAbApfkDqwA

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aflaaak View Post

The App Store doesn't, unfortunately, allow to sort by rating, so combing through them is a bit tedious.

Lack of sorting by rating really annoys me when it comes to the App Store. I think they must have done it on purpose so that people wouldn't just go for popular apps and try others out but the reality is you end up coming across the poor apps and buying none of them or just end up with a bad experience. I'm sure over time, they'll find this out.
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